Gennady Golovkin vs Gabriel Rosado: Triple G Will be a Triple Threat

In just a few hours junior middleweight contender Gabriel Rosado 21-5 with 13 KO's will be in the biggest fight of his career when he challenges WBA/WBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin 24-0 with 21 KO's in a scheduled 12 round bout in the middleweight division.

* Gennady Golovkin vs Rosado will be the second bout featured in HBO's tripleheader. Actual start time may be closer to 10:30-11PM EST.

Rising pugilist, 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist and undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin will be making the fifth defense of his WBA middleweight title against Philadelphian Gabriel Rosado in what will be HBO's first boxing telecast of the year.

Most avoided middleweight in the worldGolovkin made his U.S. ring debut just over four months ago on HBO with an impressive fifth round TKO victory over the highly respected Polish born Grzegorz Proksa.

Proksa, who suffered only the second loss and first TKO loss of his career at the hands of Golovkin, stated afterwards:

"The guy hits like a hammer. I tried everything, but it did not work. You have to give him credit, because he had a good handle on the situation and it was an honor to meet him in the ring. Even though I lost every round, I wanted to fight on....

There is no reason for us to have avoided fighting him - and I think today I fought not only the best fighter in my weight class, but perhaps even in the pound for pound rankings."

After his successful U.S. debut, Golovkin, who lives in Germany and primarily fights there, let it be known that he crossed the Atlantic looking for bigger fights.

Commenting for HBO, Roy Jones, Jr. hinted prior to Golovkin's destruction of Proska that Gennady might be the best middleweight in the world. The fight legend noted Golovkin's excellent balance and stated he was always well-placed and at the proper angle.

As a result, Golovkin is often in position to mount an attack and get good leverage on his shots.

Golovkin hopes to have an impressive outing tonight on HBO to put himself in line for a potential superfight with the current undisputed middleweight champion Sergio Martinez.

Currently, Gennady Golovkin has the dubious distinction of being the most avoided middleweight in the world because he's considered by other fight teams as 'too much risk for the reward.'

Junior middleweight contender Gabriel Rosado was looking for higher profile fights when he took this fight with Golovkin and, in November, was mentioned as a possible opponent for Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez. But even before he accepted this fight with Golovkin, Rosado had already secured the mandatory position for a fight to challenge Cornelius "K9" Bundrage for the latter's IBF junior middleweight title.

When Rosado made an appearance on BoxingScene.com's radio show "The Boxing Lab" he said:

"I saw the fight with Golovkin as a great opportunity. I clinched the number one spot as K9's mandatory but I see this as a bigger opportunity. I beat Triple G and I become a star. I know I can do it and I'm going to do it."

Rosado is confidentRosado predicts he will win this fight by KO.

"I don't see this fight making it to the tenth round. I've trained hard for this fight and I really want to knock him out. If I win by decision that's great but I really want a knockout. I think it will come in the 8th or 9th round."

With very little amateur boxing to speak of, 27 year old Gabriel Rosado has been boxing professionally for seven years and didn't start until the late age of 18. Rosado had to learn the craft fast and on the job.

Because of his late entry into the Sweet Science, Rosado tries to stay a step ahead of the opposition.

"I'm not the type of fighter who just goes to the gym and trains. I go home and study film with my trainer. I'm always learning and always working on my game. I am always looking to add to my game from the old school fighters."

Catch-weights are a jokeRosado's advisers negotiated a catch-weight of 158 pounds but Rosado refused to fight at any weight lower than the 160 pound middleweight limit.

Rosado said, "I think catch-weights are a joke. How can you fight a champion and tell him to meet you at a catch-weight? That's why they have weight classes. He's the champ so I want to fight him at his weight class plus I don't want those last two pounds to kill him and give him an excuse as to why he lost. I want to beat him fair and square."

Matchup and predictionBoth men have shown they have brutal knockout power. As Rosado put it, "Anybody can knockout anybody. It's only 10 ounce gloves." But Gennady Golovkin is the overwhelming favorite to win and has proven himself with his titles and undefeated record.

Rosado faces an uphill battle against Gennady Golovkin - a proven middleweight with a deep amateur pedigree who has knocked out other full-fledged 160 pound middleweights.

Rosado has been knocked out by a nondescript fighter and the biggest name win on Rosado's record, Kassim Ouma, was a ten round split decision.

This fight should be a very entertaining slugfest. I'm picking Golovkin to stop Rosado no later than the midway point in the fight but wouldn't be surprised if Triple G ends the fight in the first couple rounds.